The Password To Life

Mar 18 2013

Zagreb, Croatia

The language of the heart transcends words and feelings.

What we think we know in the universe is only very little as compared to what we don’t know. What we don’t know is a lot, and meditation is the door to the unknown. Shake hands with this new dimension.

Meditation brings so many benefits.

First, it brings so much peace and joy. Second, it brings immense love for everybody. Third, it brings creativity, the intuitive ability, and the knowledge of that which is beyond the physical universe.

As babies, we all had some special vibrations. Babies anywhere in the world attract you. There is a certain purity, a certain vibration in them. They are so special. As we grew older, somewhere we got disconnected with that spirit, with that energy, that we were originally born with.

Have you all had this experience, that for no reason you feel aversion towards some people, and for no apparent reason, you get pulled towards some people? Hasn’t this happened to you? Every day it happens; all the time. This is because our whole life is from vibrations. There is a certain vibration that each one of us radiates. Everybody is radiating energy. When our mind is stuck, the energy becomes negative. When the mind is free, the energy is very positive.

Neither at home, nor in school; no one teaches us how to make our energy positive, isn’t it so? We need to learn how we can change negativity, anger, jealousy, greed, frustration, depression, into positive energy, and that is where breathing helps.

Through some breathing techniques and meditation, we can change negative energy into positive energy. And when we are positive and happy, we spread happiness around us. This is one level; the practical and the most essential benefit of meditation.

As I said, there are other benefits of meditation. When we want to be more creative, intuitive, and when we want to know what is going to happen to us five to ten years down the line, then meditation is the answer.

Seeing life from a broader perspective needs a little more effort, i.e., effortless effort (meditation). In fact, it is not even effort, it is just the matter of a little more time. We need to take one week or ten days’ time and go deep into the mystic realms of our own life. I tell you, that makes you so strong, powerful, peaceful, and fulfilled.

In the ancient times, people would not share this knowledge of meditation with everybody. They would keep it a secret, and only a few privileged people had it.

Usually it was given to the royalties and the high intellectual people. I thought differently. I thought this is the property of the whole mankind, and every human being should learn it. It is not the property of one culture, one civilization, one religion or one nation, it belongs to the whole humanity. We then started putting this out to the world, and today, all over the world people are benefiting from this beautiful wisdom.

Twenty years ago, when I was here, there was so much uncertainty. People were asking, ‘What will happen, we are a very young nation.’

I said, ‘Don’t worry, the nation will progress, it will become very stable.’

I know today there is crisis all over the world. Again I am telling you, don’t worry! We will pass this difficult time, there will be sunshine.

I think it has become my habit, where there is a crisis, I have to go there and say, ‘There will be no crisis. Things will get better’, and it does happen. Things become better.

In America, in 1999, people thought that in 2000 the world was going to end. People were storing milk powder and groceries in their basement. Many people who were living in the West coast of America were selling their homes and moving to Colorado. I travelled to so many cities and said, ‘Don’t worry, nothing is going to happen. Business will be usual’, and it is as usual!

Nature has kept such wealth deep in the heart of every human being, we only need a password, and here is the word which you can pass around to everybody that I am telling you, ‘Don’t worry.’

There is a power, there is a force in the universe which loves you more than your parents did, your friends did, or your partner did. There is a field, there is energy that cares for you. You simply have to relax.

Our consciousness is very old, very ancient. By the third law of thermodynamics, we know that energy cannot be created nor destroyed. Mind is such an energy. It’s been there for a long time and this consciousness takes in many impressions. And studying this is so fascinating. When I travel around the world, I don’t feel like I am meeting strangers, I feel like they are part of me and I know them. We may not know each other’s names, but we know each other’s souls; we feel the connection. I have always felt that we all belong to one family, we all know each other.

One more thing I’d like to tell you, is about doubts. Doubts are always about something that is positive.

If someone tells you, ‘I love you so much’, what do you say? ‘Really?’

If someone tells you, ‘I hate you’, you never say, ‘Really?’

We doubt in the honesty of a person, but we never doubt someone’s dishonesty. In the same way, you doubt your capabilities, you never doubt your weaknesses, isn’t it?

When you’re happy, you ask, ‘Is this real? Am I dreaming?’ But when you're unhappy, you don’t ask, ‘Is this real?’ You're so sure about your depression. We never doubt our depression! So, doubt is always about something that is positive. We never doubt something negative.

An intelligent person turns this around, and starts doubting the negative.

Suppose someone comes and tells you that so and so said bad things about you, you immediately believe it. Don’t do that. Say, ‘No, I don’t believe it’, and you call that person and say, ‘Someone tells that you say bad things, but I don’t believe it.’

When you say that, even if the person has said bad things about you, his mind will change.

If an individual is not well founded, it affects the family. With many such affected families, the community and the country gets affected. Wisdom or knowledge brings strength to the individuals and helps one keep a smile, come what may! So The Art of Living is all about how to keep the smile fresh and alive, and keep serving the society. Smile and Serve!

I have come here to take away from you any stress, or any discomfort that you have. I want to see a big smile on your face. Go back with a big smile! Give me all your worries and tension. I’m with you. Whenever you feel there is some problem in your life, and you feel that you’re all alone, know that you are not alone, I am with you. Give me your problems and I’d like to see you smile and serve.

Questions & Answers

Please tell us about some of the changes that the Earth is presently undergoing.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Yes, Earth constantly changes. But what humankind has done with the environment is unfortunate. We have put so many dynamites to make mines, to extract from the depth of the Earth. Earthquakes, tsunami, and all these disasters have started because of this. So, we need to care for the environment. If we don’t care for the environment and take care for of our planet, it will create more and more challenges for us.

See, there are few issues that we all have to take responsibility for.

1.Environment: We put so many chemicals into our fields, that the food we grow has really become unfit for our consumption. How many of you have aches and pains in your body? Do you know why? The food we eat has too many pesticides and chemicals.

Just to make vegetables grow bigger, we put so many chemical fertilizers which are not good for our body. I would like the planet to go organic.

You know, there are some very, which now I am promoting very vigorously in India. It has brought so much change. It has increased the productivity almost three-and-a-half times, with zero budget. We call it zero-budget farming. The farmer does not have to borrow money, put fertilizer, and chemicals. Just out of certain natural things, certain natural plants and natural manure, he can grow vegetables and grains at a much cheaper price, at a higher quality, and a higher quantity.

The Art of Living would love to share this knowledge with anybody here in Croatia who would like to do farming. We would love to share with them and show them how we can make a model farm; one with low cost and higher productivity.

You know, we have a record of farmers who were getting Rs.40000 before, and have now started getting Rs.400000 within one year. They could generate a 10 times higher income with organic farming, that too at a lower cost.

2.Corruption: It is a very big issue. There is corruption all over the world. I don’t know how it is here in Croatia, but in India, it is a big issue. Also in the Asian continent.

Do you know, corruption begins where the sense of belonging ends? Nobody is corrupt with people whom they feel connected to. They ask for bribe only from those who they feel are not their own, isn’t it so? We need to change this. We need to create a higher sense of belongingness.

If everyone here in Croatia takes a vow, ‘Neither will I give bribe, nor take bribe’, at least for one year, you will see the whole face of the nation will change. Can we do this? Let us all present here, talk to everybody else in the country.

See, we have four million people here. It is not too big when compared to India. In the city which I come from, Bangalore, we have eight million people right now, i.e., double the population of Croatia. So I am very confident that you can make Croatia a very ideal state when people participate.

If someone has a great craving for taking bribe, wait for one year, you can do it later. If you all take this oath, that for one year, neither will you give bribe nor take bribe, it will make a big difference.

A law, or enforcement will not rule out corruption. It has to come from the heart. When the human values are blossoming in society, the evil elements in society will go away.

3.Addiction: People are addicted to so many things; addicted to pornography, addicted to alcohol, addicted to drugs. We should help them come out of these addictions.

The prisons here, and elsewhere in the world are filled with people because of these addictions. Of course we are already doing work in the prisons here, but we have to help people to not go into the prison.

So we can all dream about, and work towards a crime-free, violence-free society.